🎮 Epic Free Games Telegram Bot

A free, fully automated Telegram bot that notifies you whenever the Epic Games Store drops a new free game. It also includes interactive buttons to check current and upcoming free games instantly.

Host it for 100% free on Render.com (no credit card required).

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✨ Features

• 🚨 Auto Notifications — Get a Telegram message the moment a new free game is available.
• 🎮 Interactive Menu — Check current free games with direct claim links.
• ⏭️ Upcoming Games — See what's coming next before it drops.
• 💸 100% Free — Uses Render's free tier and Cron-job.org to stay online 24/7.
• 🛠️ Privacy Focused — No personal IDs are stored in the code.

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🚀 Setup Guide

Step 1 — Create a Telegram Bot

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather.
2. Send /newbot and follow the instructions to name your bot.
3. Copy the API Token provided (e.g., 123456:ABC-DEF...).

Step 2 — Get your Telegram Chat ID

1. Open your new bot in Telegram and click Start or send it any message (e.g., "hi").
2. Open your browser and go to this URL (replace <YOUR_TOKEN> with your actual token): https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/getUpdates
3. Look for the "chat" section and find the "id" number (e.g., 1188421559).
   • Note: If the page is empty [], send another message to the bot and refresh.

Step 3 — Fork & Deploy

1. Fork this repository to your own GitHub account.
2. Create a free account at Render.com.
3. Click New + > Web Service and connect your forked GitHub repository.

Step 4 — Set Environment Variables (Important!)

In your Render dashboard, go to the Environment tab and add these two variables:

• BOT_TOKEN: (Paste your token from @BotFather)
• CHAT_ID: (Paste your ID from Step 2)

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🛠️ Keeping it Awake (24/7)

Render's free tier "sleeps" after 15 minutes of inactivity. To keep your bot responsive:

1. Create a free account at Cron-job.org.
2. Create a new cron job pointing to your Render URL (e.g., https://your-bot-name.onrender.com).
3. Set it to run every 10 to 14 minutes.

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📁 File Structure

• epic_free_game_bot.py: The main bot logic (Python 3.14+ compatible).
• requirements.txt: List of necessary libraries for Render to install.
• seen_games.json: Automatically created to prevent duplicate notifications.

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📄 License

MIT License — Feel free to use, modify, and share!

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⭐ If this bot helped you, please consider giving this repository a star!